Stuff! and the toe-headed wonder.

 What a couple of weeks it has been! We started off with a surprising bang! last week when Steve Klein, the director of admissions at Wabash, visited our school in New Delhi. It was a weird twist of fate that it happened to be the first (and only) day that I looked at the student announcements and just happened to see that Wabash was visiting. Zach and I went home for lunch and changed into the appropriate garb for a good photo. Rumor has it we made the Wabash facebook page!

 Last Friday there was a newbie/buddy happy hour at the American compound. We went and enjoyed good company and a few drinks. The girls have come to depend on and love hanging out with Tía Court and Tío Zach.

Guapa's relegated to dressing in Maya's pjs for  her.

Our stuff arrive this week and we were ecstatic--until we realized that we have a whole lot of junk. I remember  agonizing over which things to take and which things to leave behind in Denver; after 8 weeks without all of it we realized that there is precious little that we need. We love having the wall hangings to remind us of the all of the people who have helped to create such wonderful memories, and the kitchen equipment is essential, but much of the rest is just a whole lot of stuff. On the upside, the movers did a great job of unpacking most of it--whoo whoo! now just to get rid of the piles they left on the floor!

I know, I know, you think this photo is cruel--and as soon as I saw Maya doing this I wanted to leave, but let me explain the evening. This is at the Marine House at the embassy compound; think fraternity house. The band that was playing are all teachers at our school so we were there in support. A couple of seconds after this photo as we were contemplating leaving (it wasn't actually very loud) the bassist called Maya over and gave her some ear plugs. Perhaps the coolest part of the whole evening was that Stene Verhulst, a friend from my coaching days in Denver, was in Delhi on a recruiting trip and made the time to hang with us for the evening.

This is one little bit of our settling in after receiving the sea shipment. I like this wall of our house a lot as it is a great blend of the old and the new. This photo is of the Colorado Aspens in the fall taken by our good friend Sean Kemp of Academy fame. Below the photo is a new hutch piece that Laura picked up; when I say "new" I mean new to us as it is really about a hundred years old we were told. I would call it an antique but I've been warned against using that terminology in India--antiques are all owned by the government. To use the vernacular of the business, this piece is "old old".

Humayan's Tomb; The Taj Mahal was modeled after parts of this.

Photos on the grounds of Humayan's Tomb were very exciting and interesting. Here is the first in a series that we asked a fellow (Indian) tourist to take for us. This is a nice family portrait in front of the tomb.

This is the second in the series. Note the awkward man standing next to Zach. He is not in fact walking as it would appear, rather, he is photo bombing us quite intentionally.

When we asked him to move over he actually moved closer to Zach at first. We clarified that we meant out of the frame and he almost obliged. I guess we can always crop an arm if we need to, right?

 Maya was a huge hit at Humayan's Tomb. Several families preferred to stare at her over looking at the magnificent structures. She dealt with the attention admirably and even posed for some photos. After a few families asked to have their picture taken with Maya, I asked for the same favor. These kids have such wonderful outfits on, I couldn't resist.

Here is a cute sequence with Maya, Naila, and Mommy.

Walking around the tomb.

Here is one of several women carrying huge bundles of grass on their heads. Look, no hands!

The girls investigating the floor.

 Here are the two gals by the tomb. They did great with all the attention and seemed to enjoy the day.

Family portrait from afar.

Naila with Tío and a bubble.